Average price of a wedding inc reception etc?

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blinkbelle

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Ive recently got engaged and am just about to start planning the wedding. Ive absolutely no idea on where to start or how much money we will need. I have about €20,000 in savings and im wondering will that be enough or would it be less than that?

Bascially a small churh wedding with about 50 guests. Reception at a nice hotel band the usual stuff, honeymoon etc.

Anyone have any ideas? know any good websites i could look up on the net?

Im totally stuffed never organised anything in my whole life!:confused:
 
I'd say spend no more than one third of your life savings on your wedding reception as a rule of thumb. :)
 
Even with a small wedding like that, you'll be lucky to get away with 20,000 - more like 25-30,000 including honeymoon (and that's while trying to rein in the spending, nothing too fancy).
 
It all depends on where in the country you're planning on having the wedding.

I got married last April in West Limerick. In total, including our honeymoon (2 weeks in top notch villa - part of hotel - in Sorrento) it cost €20,000. Now we decided early on that we wanted good food but obviously at the right price, so we researched the hotels in the area based on this. We didn't bother with favours, chair covers, OTT flowers, cars, etc. My Mom and I made the 2 tier cake and got a local woman to ice it. I kept the flowers simple, but the hotel were doing the table decor so I didn't bother with flowers for there. I got my dress near home and saved over 50% of the cost compared to Dublin/other city prices. We used family cars (right colour obviously ;) )! I made the invites, service booklets, table plans, and thank you cards - lots of work but satisfying and we got exactly what we wanted for a fraction of the cost (in total the materials cost €250 tops - with plenty of contingency). We found a band who also did the DJ. A family contact is a photographer and did ours for a reduced fee, videos were done by family members, turned out lovely, very personal. I bet most people will have contact with someone who can do something in relation to the wedding!

The wedding was in no way skimped on, people are still talking about it - and most importantly we enjoyed it.

Sit down with your fiance and decide what you two want for your wedding day. Decide what aspects you want to spend a little extra on and that will dictate where you will have to save on.

www.weddingsonline.ie and [broken link removed] are both very helpful with tips, recommendations, and general advice. There's lots of creativity out there and you'll be surprised how much you have within you at the end of the planning!

Enjoy it all, it's worth every minute, but don't lose sight of the marriage.
 
I am recently engaged myself and have the church, hotel, photographer and music already booked for my weddng in 2008. Decide on a date and speak to your priest and hotel first then sort out the rest. The hotel is approx 37.00 euro per head for 4 course meal with choice of main course and appetizer. At first we thought that having wine at meal was a real rip off but then thought the other option of buying a drink for everyone at the reception was a real rip off i.e some smart a*se ordering a double etc and we left with a hefty bill the next morning. The hotel are charging us 8.00 corkage and we are going to buy the wine ourselves - look for special offers and start stocking up now!! We are going to make our own invitations - nothing too fancy becasue we all know that they are thrown into the bin! My fiance has a big family of cousins where as I have only a handful but we decided from the start we are only inviting people who actually mean something to us to the full day, as this is our day and we both want the special people in our lives there to share the day with us instead of people we never see. At present we have approx 150 to day and the same to evening reception. We have a good local band approx 1000.00 and local dj for approx 300.00. Im going to buy my dress in the sale and buy 3 bridesmaid dresses that my bridesmaids can actually wear again ie. knee lenght dresses, instead of long dresses left hanging in a wardrobe. Check out www.simplyweddings.com or do a google search on weddings in your area i.e weddings in Meath (or whatever county you live in)
 
There is no average, it's entirely up to you to spend whatever you are comfortable with! If you really only have 50 guests then this is already good news as the reception is usually the biggest hit which can vary from 35 to 70, 80 and upwards euros per head for meal and wine.
Also the band could be between 1000 to 3000 depending on what you want.
The honeymoon is just a holiday. It doesn't HAVE to be a super delux exotic fantasy trip, unless that is what you are into. It will cost as little or as much as you want.

anyway like the others say www.weddingsonline.ie has everything you could need with regard to saving money tips and recommendations etc.

At the end of the day, it is your hard earned money and you should spend it or not spend it as you see fit!

congratulations and good luck!
 
My friend recently got married and someone told her about a way to save on menu costs. A lot of hotels charge for having an extra choice on the menu or charge for the most expensive dish if there is a choice regardless of the actual guests selection. She got around this by ecnlosing a little card with the invitations as follows:


Mary
 
Oops sorry...hadn't finished there!

Mary just ticks the chicken or beef box beside her name and returns it with the RSVP card.

I was a bit skeptical but on the day it worked out very well. Most people will know in advance of the wedding anyway what dish they will choose. The kitchen knew what everyone was having and referred to a seating plan so when the meal arrived it was all co-ordinated and the waitresses weren't wandering around wondering who was having what!! She saved €800...
 
gor engaged in dec and we are in the process of putting the wedding together, we have the church, hotel, band, dj ( I work as a wedding dj so its free ), i got my car for free, church singer for free.

We got some bad news yesterday when we heard our photographer had dies suddenly ( RIP ).

We're off to New York in Feb and she'll get her dress over there and we'll get the rings there too and save a bunch.

The suits we'll get at a wedding fair ( where you'll get great discouts on stationary, photographers, etc )

The Point is prob the best of the lot and i've been to many through work.

All in all we are looking at about 25K before the honeymoon. Ok its a lot but i'm looking forward to it and it will bew a great family day.
 
You can have a great wedding for around 15K. I did that for 100 people 4 years ago, Top hotel,no scrimping etc. I don't understand where people get figures of 30K.
 
hi there.

Thanks to everybody for there messages. Seems like i have alot to think about half the stuff people mentioned i have not even thought about. I could not imagine speading all my savings on a wedding. Think i'm gonna have to do alot of shopping about.

Some very good ideas there and that weddings online site is brill.
Thanks again.

Oh and one other thing is it the bride's mum that is supposed to sent the invites or whats the story there?
 
JohnnieKippe said:
You can have a great wedding for around 15K. I did that for 100 people 4 years ago, Top hotel,no scrimping etc. I don't understand where people get figures of 30K.
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4 years is a long time in this industry, if you take a 5 to 10 percent increase in costs per year.....that adds 40% and we are having almost 200 at our wedding so automatic increase.

but there are ways to save.

do the mass booklet yourelf

go to wedding fairs and get specials

from my area, a band is about 2k and DJ for full night 625.

less bridesmaid and groomsmen

use only one car

no favours

no wine on the table

get photos only and get your own album

lots of ways if you want to use them.
 
Rons bang on, its only when you've been at a lot of weddings that you see what works, what doesnt and where money has been wasted. See this other thread in LOS
 
How about trying to get the wedding to pay for itself. Perhaps hold it on a day that doesnt conflict with any major event. Let people know well in advance that they are invited. Arrange something that they will not want to miss, maybe a popular band at an outdoor/indoor reception. Specify only cash as wedding gifts. Dont allow kids as they dont bring money with them. Arrange a deal with the hotel to charge and extra 50c on each drink split 50/50. Keep wedding tables bare with maybe only a dinner menu on it. Have a raffle with a good prize such as a holiday. You may need to invite a few hundred for it to pay off and it maybe alot of work but you could even make money out of this.

Oh I hate myself for suggeting all of that. There is no way my wedding will be like it.
 
rkeane said:
Specify only cash as wedding gifts . Dont allow kids as they dont bring money with them. .
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1. That is guranteed to land you with 50 toasters, its been discussed before and there is no way to do that. you can try by telling family to suggest cash if people ask but you end up looking really bad and mean if you ask directly for money.

2. a lot of guests give no present, you would be amazed at the amount of couples i talk to afterwards that say we can no present at all from a lot of people.

3. kids are cheaper to feed than adults.....10 for nuggets and chips V 50 for a full meal

4.i have my wedding in jan cause i want people to compain about the weather and i can go what to you expect its Jan.

but also because there is nothing else on and i want everyoen i invite to go.

5. and a raffle doesn't work, i've seen it in operation and unless you give the money to charity you look even more mean by the second.


these are just my experiences from being involved in a lot of weddings and hearing the good and the bad.
 
Ron Burgundy said:
1. That is guranteed to land you with 50 toasters, its been discussed before and there is no way to do that. you can try by telling family to suggest cash if people ask but you end up looking really bad and mean if you ask directly for money.

2. a lot of guests give no present, you would be amazed at the amount of couples i talk to afterwards that say we can no present at all from a lot of people.

3. kids are cheaper to feed than adults.....10 for nuggets and chips V 50 for a full meal

4.i have my wedding in jan cause i want people to compain about the weather and i can go what to you expect its Jan.

but also because there is nothing else on and i want everyoen i invite to go.

5. and a raffle doesn't work, i've seen it in operation and unless you give the money to charity you look even more mean by the second.


these are just my experiences from being involved in a lot of weddings and hearing the good and the bad.
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Pretend its for charity. Advertise your wedding as a joint event to accomodate a fund raiser for an overseas charity. You'd need to cover yourself but I'm sure you could do it. Also, setup the raffle so that you win the holiday. Honeymoon sorted.
 
rkeane said:
Pretend its for charity. Advertise your wedding as a joint event to accomodate a fund raiser for an overseas charity. You'd need to cover yourself but I'm sure you could do it. Also, setup the raffle so that you win the holiday. Honeymoon sorted.
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you really need to stop stalking eddie hobbs;)
 
I got married seven years ago, and still rue the amount of money we squandered on our wedding, inviting guests we hardly new (parents friends they do bring decent presents though) stupid photos baa humbug. But we had a great day, nevertheless it is still only a day so should be kept in perspective.

Thats my rant but the biggest mistake we made was the honneymoon. For the last three months before your wed you are very busy and quite stressed at times, then you have a massive day where you are the centre of attention of 150 people, two days later you are sitting in some dodgy honeymoon hotel with just each other it is a massive anti climax. We went to Lake Garda full of honey mooners all with the same bored faces. Especially since most couples nowadays live togeather first the honeymoon is a bit of an irrelevence IMO.

My advise is to take a long Weekend in some European city after wedding to relax, then come home and enjoy the fun with your friends Then go on some serious trip i.e month in AUS maybe the following summer. When all the wedding stress has long gone.

One other thought I could not give a monkeys about my friends getting married I am really happy for them if they do but have no real interest in going to their weddings. I know its important for my family to be there so would you not take your families to a small church service and then a really nice meal in a flash restaurant that night. Then blow the 20K on a on a decent party for your mates (no dodgy bands )and a great time for the two of you instead of providing over cooked lamb cutlets to people you wont recognise in the street in 10 years.

Just a thought.
 
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